Construction of medical buildings booming on South Shore

South Shore Hospital’s 75,000-square-foot Center for for Orthopedics, Spine and Sports Medicine opened in late 2011 in Hingham’s South Shore Park. More projects are under way, including South Shore Medical Center’s 80,000-square-foot complex on Longwater Drive in Norwell, which is being promoted as the anchor of a larger health-care campus.

Many commercial projects have something in common: a health-care connection

Medical offices and clinics are the impetus for the bulk of major commercial projects on the South Shore, and there’s no sign that the boom will end anytime soon. Treatment continues to move from big-city hospitals to suburban clinics, and most large-scale commercial developments built in recent years have a health-care tie-in.

South Shore Hospital’s 75,000-square-foot Center for for Orthopedics, Spine and Sports Medicine opened in late 2011 in Hingham’s South Shore Park.

More projects are under way, including South Shore Medical Center’s 80,000-square-foot complex on Longwater Drive in Norwell, which is being promoted as the anchor of a larger health-care campus.

“It’s being driven by demographics,” said Richard McKinnon, brokerage team leader for The Grossman Companies of Quincy. “People still move to the ’burbs, and the medical industry is saying, ‘We can provide this service less expensively in the suburbs.’”

While office construction has been stalled since the recession began in 2008, and vacancies still top 20 percent south of Boston, health care has provided a steady source of business for developers and the building trades.

At 141 Longwater Drive in Norwell, construction continues on the 80,000-square-foot South Shore Medical Center, which will consolidate the center’s Norwell and Weymouth facilities.

Containing 70 medical offices, the building is considered just the start of a larger health-care campus to be developed by Foxrock Properties of Quincy. Foxrock’s construction firm, Campanelli Companies of Braintree, is converting the neighboring former WearGuard warehouse into a medical campus.

New England Baptist Hospital in Boston is partnering with Quincy-based Shields Healthcare on its first expansion outside of its Boston campus. Scheduled to open in July, the 66,000-square-foot facility will include physical therapy, imaging and other services.

“With declining insurance reimbursements, it makes more sense to see people outside of a hospital,” said Caleb Hudak, a vice president for real estate brokerage Colliers International.

In Quincy, construction of a 28,000-square-foot medical office building is nearing completion just off the Southeast Expressway. The project is being sponsored by Compass Medical of East Bridgewater.

Compass will offer internal medicine, family medicine, radiology and other specialty services, marketing director Kelly Bartucca said. The facility is expected to open this summer.

Demand for greater availability of clinical services in suburban settings is being driven by measures intended to contain health-care costs.

At the same time, walk-in clinics have emerged as an alternative to overcrowded hospital emergency rooms. With lower co-pays, they appeal to patients with less generous health insurance plans.

In Hingham, Grossman Companies is marketing 90 Industrial Park Road in Hingham for potential medical users. The current tenant, the South Shore Collaborative, is moving elsewhere within the office park in June.

Page 2 of 2 - The building contains 61,000 square feet suitable for medical uses. A robust electrical system remains from when the building housed a printing company. The site has room for expansion to 175,000 square feet of office or medical space.

“Clearly the Route 3 corridor all the way to the Cape will see an increase in that kind of medical practice facility in bigger settings,” McKinnon said.